India's Oil and Gas Sector Offers USD 100 Bn Investment Opportunities: Puri

New Delhi, Jul 12 (KNN) Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, announced on Thursday that the country's oil and gas sector presents investment opportunities worth USD 100 billion in exploration and production (E&P) activities by 2030. The government is committed to reducing regulatory delays to facilitate these investments.

During a stakeholder interaction organised by the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH), Puri revealed the formation of a new joint working group.

This group, comprising representatives from private E&P operators, national oil companies, and the government, will focus on improving the ease of doing business in the sector.

They are tasked with submitting recommendations for potential policy revisions within eight weeks.

Currently, only 10 per cent of India's 3.36-million-square-kilometer sedimentary basin is under exploration. The government aims to increase this to 16 percent by the end of 2024. Puri emphasised the need to focus on discovering ‘Yet to Find’ resources.

The government is set to launch the 10th round of bidding for oil and gas assets under the Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP) next month, coinciding with the announcement of winning bids for OALP IX.

To date, 144 blocks covering approximately 244,000 square kilometres have been awarded through the first eight bid rounds.

India has set an ambitious target of exploring 1 million square kilometres by 2030 and has reduced 'No-Go' areas in its Exclusive Economic Zone by nearly 99 percent to facilitate this goal.

The Discovered Small Field (DSF) policy, introduced in 2015, has attracted investments of about $2 billion and 29 new players. A recent Special DSF Bid Round offers new opportunities in Mumbai Offshore and West Bengal.

To streamline operations, the DGH will upgrade the National Data Repository to a cloud-based system within a month, enabling instant access to seismic, well, and production data.

The minister also announced plans to approve annual work programme budgets before the financial year and integrate various online portals by year-end.

In a separate development, Indian oil marketing companies are in preliminary talks with Russia for potential long-term oil and gas supply deals.

These discussions may have been part of recent bilateral talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian crude currently accounts for 40 percent of India's crude imports.

(KNN Bureau)